


Tongue-in-Cheek

by Sismyn



Category: Roswell New Mexico (TV 2019)
Genre: Angst, Drama, F/F, F/M, Fluff, Humor, M/M, Romance, Secret Identity, superhero au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-19
Updated: 2019-05-31
Packaged: 2020-03-07 18:10:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 12,694
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18878518
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sismyn/pseuds/Sismyn
Summary: Superhero AU which I can't tag from mobile!In a world where aliens are known to exist, normal people can have powers and regularly become heroes at the call of a psychic, Roswell still has its secrets, in the forms of identities, murderers, and love.Third person, point of view switches per chapter.





	1. Thornsweet

When she woke up, all Rosa could think at first was that she'd had way more drugs than the ritual had called for. Usually that was fine, but she felt itchy all over. She moved to scratch her arm but hissed as soon as her nails made contact.

She didn't want to look. She'd screwed up the ritual, all right. Rosa had only wanted to cast a stay-away hex on Kate and Jasmine.

She looked around the graffitied turquoise mine. Maybe it still worked. It was morning, and the other two girls were gone.

As were her clothes.

Rosa growled and went to her stash, behind and under a rock formation, a hidden door that could only open with her magic touch. She traced the black heart.

The only cloth she had was a blanket, but she could make it fashion. She wound it around herself carefully and wondered at the time. Her phone was also missing. Given it was morning, though, she had no doubt Arturo would be angry with her.

Finally, she actually looked at the burns on her arms. She could also feel them on her back and up her neck, stopping just below her hairline. Her skin was peeling and gave her the appearance of a shedding snake.

Suddenly, she remembered the man, the _snake_ who interrupted her ritual. "Shit." She sat down. He had done something to Kate and Jasmine, brought them there, entered her head, and she had made herself burn to get him out. "Shit!"

He was gone too.

She hurried out of the cave where the sand was thicker. She had to call someone, and her first thought was Isobel, but as she dragged her foot along the ground to draw a circle, she couldn't bring herself to drag Izzy into whatever had happened. Instead of Isobel's symbol, she drew a flower, then she sat in the middle and concentrated.

_Wildflower_.

She heard a small gasp. When she opened her eyes, she was at the Wild Pony as expected, but it wasn't Mama DeLuca who stood behind the bar staring at her open-mouthed.

"Maria?"

The bar was empty and brightly saturated, the usual for a call of this type.

Her friend walked straight through the counter as if it wasn't there. "How are you doing this?" Maria demanded.

Rosa made a face at her hostility and pulled her blanket tighter. "Chill, I'm doing it like normal, no accessory drugs. Why do you look all... hot and mature?"

Maria's expression faltered, and she bit her lip. "Don't do this to me."

"Sorry, I was trying to call your mom! I know you have your exam today, but I need _somebody_. Did she make you Wildflower overnight or what?" Rosa waved a hand in front of her face when Maria didn't answer. "Hello, I need help. Please."

Suddenly, Rosa was enveloped. Maria had to be one of the best smelling people on the planet. She couldn't bring herself to drop the blanket to hug back, though. She also wasn't too sure why it was happening, but she would never say no to a DeLuca hug.

"This isn't fair. You can't call me from the other side like this after so long. It hurts too much. We needed this call ages ago."

"The hell are you on about, Maria? I'm at the old turquoise mine. My hex got interrupted, and now I'm stranded out here. Can you please come get me? Even if you have to come after your exam--"

"Rosa." She pulled away, bemused. "What year is it?"

"I'm not that high! It's 2008!"

"No, babe, it's 2018."

Rosa froze. That would explain why she looked so much older, but it made absolutely no sense. She had seen her twelve hours ago.

"You've been gone for ten years."

"No. No, I burned out my clothes and skin, and I had to sleep off the spells, Maria. I'm right here." Rosa pulled her through to her side of the call and turned them toward the entrance of the cave. "See? Turquoise mines, not hell, where I obviously belong."

Realization dawned on her best friend's face. "You're alive?"

"Yes! Come get me!"

"I'm coming. Half an hour."

Maria disappeared as the call snapped. Rosa fell backwards and squirmed in her blanket. Ten years? Surely she'd have felt that, but why would Maria lie to her? Maybe she accidentally ripped open the time stream and fell ahead. She'd heard of that happening.

Whatever had happened, it meant everyone thought she'd been dead for ten years. Everyone, including Liz. She sat up. She _was_ as bad as their mother.

* * *

She didn't recognize the car, but she seriously doubted anyone else would come out to the desert in the middle of the day. To her horror, Liz got out of the driver's side, and Maria got out with a stack of clothes.

Rosa pulled the blanket up her neck to hide the burns better. "Liz!"

She saw the line that was her sister's mouth, vivid red lipstick just barely visible. Liz looked older, too. Tougher. She took a bag from the back seat, no doubt full of scientific instruments. The car doors slammed, and Maria reached her first.

She couldn't get dressed fast enough to hide from Liz. Her eyes were rimmed pink like she was trying not to cry. They raked over the glaring burns. "I need proof," she said finally. Her voice shook.

Rosa looked down at herself desperately. She held out her right forearm and drew a glowing rose there. When she blew on it, it sprouted. She couldn't help but smile at her favorite spell.

Liz shook her head and opened her bag. The flower withered and dropped off Rosa's arm. Half the bag was indeed electronics, but the other side looked more like what Rosa normally kept in hers. She recognized the powders her sister pulled out and clustered in the sand.

"I'm-- I'm not possessed!" Rosa said.

Liz looked up seriously. "Then you won't mind if I check, and you won't mind if Maria checks her way while I do."

She groaned, but Liz was right. Better safe than sorry. She held a hand out to each of them. Again, Maria reached her first, and the sun dimmed until they were the only two in the world.

"Hey," Rosa said casually.

Her best friend had been maintaining all the seriousness of Liz, but in the privacy of their minds, a smile finally broke through. "I already knew it was you. But Liz, uh, Liz doesn't trust anything anymore."

Her gut twisted, but she'd told Liz that she had to do as much to protect herself. "She shouldn't. People suck, even me."

"What do you remember?"

Vaguely, she could feel her sister working on her right hand, but Rosa ignored that and squeezed her brain. "I was high as shit for the ritual."

"You weren't supposed to use barbiturates for them anymore! You said you were stopping!"

"You didn't see what Kate and Jasmine did to my car," she said darkly. "I needed the extra power. I drank all the whiskey I got from the bar, too."

"Rosa! You killed them!"

She stared at her friend blankly. "I did not. It was a stay-away hex, not a murder curse."

"Yeah, they've stayed away! Six feet under!"

"That's not how hexes work and you know it," Rosa argued. She felt Liz prick her finger and hoped she was almost satisfied. She hated being prodded.

"Then why did they die here the same night you disappeared?"

"I told you, someone interrupted my ritual." She tried to show her the memories, scroll through them analytically like Liz was so good at doing, but the images were frayed and out of order, and she couldn't even make out the man's face. "He had Kate and Jasmine, he attacked my mind, I burned him out, that's all I remember."

Maria nodded slowly and reached toward the man. The memory flickered but became no clearer. "Sounds like Bodysnatcher."

"What?"

She sighed. "The semi-annual handprint murders that started in 2004 are ongoing."

"They _still_ haven't caught him?"

They were suddenly tugged out of the mindscape before Maria could answer. The two blinked at the brightness. Liz threw her arms around her sister. "I missed you so much."

Rosa patted her back reassuringly. "Sorry I fell out of the time stream. I'm here now."

"You didn't," Liz said, rubbing at her nose. She tapped on a glass bottle full of pink liquid. "Supposed to react to misplaced time. Didn't react to you."

"All right, I have no idea, then. Magic is a fickle mistress." Rosa stretched her arms above her head. "So, beside a fat lot of nothing on that serial killer, what I miss?"

Liz swallowed thickly. "Let's get out of here first."

She couldn't help but make a face. "Where? Not the Crashdown."

"No. I have, um, a lab."

"A lair," Maria corrected.

Rosa snorted a laugh. "You playing hero, Elizabeth?"

"Hero adjacent," she mumbled. She shook her head. "I've got bunks there in case any of the real heroes need to be patched up."

"Fancy. Good. I don't want to see Arturo."

"Dad," Liz said. "Look, I know you had that teenage rebellion thing going, but he missed you, too. Stayed up all night waiting for you. When the reports came in about Kate and Jasmine, the magic burns, he made excuses for you, he--"

"Wait. Does everyone think I killed them?"

Liz looked away, and Maria squeezed her shoulder.

"This is such bullshit. Do you believe that, Liz? Liz!"

"With the evidence I had, it was hard not to." She sniffled. "We were targeted, Rosa. I make armor now, because if I didn't, me and Dad would be dead."

She scoffed. "What about those heroes? Haven't they been protecting you? White Noise? Influencer? Cowboy?"

Liz flushed at the first code name. Some things never changed. "Yeah, but with all the stuff happening constantly in this town, things slip through the cracks. Come on, let's talk on the way."

They followed her to her car, and Rosa stole Liz's bag as soon as she put it down to rifle through the jars. "You got nightshade?"

"That won't work on everyone."

She snorted and found the jar. It worked on humans, which she figured they were slightly more likely to run into. "Aliens in Roswell? Please." As she drew shapes with it on her neck, the peeling burns melted back into her, her skin lightened, and her mole seemed to disappear.

In the front, Maria and Liz exchanged a glance.

"It was a joke, Jesus, why do you guys take everything so seriously? Unless they're a complete fool, they won't reveal themself to out me. I'm smarter than I look."

"Yeah, I know," said Liz. She poked Maria's shoulder. "How about we start with the music you missed?"

"All right, turn on the radio and I'll judge." Rosa settled in, arms crossed, eyes closed.

Maria scratched her head and connected her phone to the auxiliary cord. "I actually, um, have been keeping a playlist of all the songs I thought you'd like."

She kneed the back of Maria's chair without opening her eyes. "That's the gayest thing I've ever heard."

"After you hear some of these you might not still think so," Liz said dryly.

"Listen, I spent weeks trying to call you with your old songs, I had to try something new. It became a collection."

She felt guilt pool in her chest. She tried to push it away. "Sorry."

"I'm just glad you weren't answering because you weren't dead," Maria said. She started up the playlist. "I was trying to connect to the wrong line."

"Mmm." She tapped her fingernails on the door along with the beat. Maria knew her well. "What's this one?"

"Can't Tell Me Nothing, Kanye."

"Shit," Liz muttered.

"His old stuff's not that bad."

"No, look, there's a road block."

On the horizon where she pointed, they could see flashing red and blue lights and a long line of orange cones.

"Did you guys come up this way?" Rosa asked.

"Yeah, it wasn't there."

"Shit," she agreed. She pushed herself up to look in the mirror. Her glamour was holding.

"Maybe we'll get waved through," Maria said optimistically.

"We're _brown_ ," Liz said.

Sure enough, they got stopped by a familiar deputy. "Good morning, ma'am, your-- Liz?"

"Max?"

He nodded and eyed Maria, then looked to the backseat. His eyes stuck on Rosa's neck, and he squinted at her.

"You've got to be kidding me," she said. She took off her seatbelt to stand, and she leaned over Liz's shoulder. "The big dumb boy became a big dumb cop?"

"Rosa? What--"

" _And_ he's a fool-ass alien?"

He backed away from her door with a jolt. Liz took a deep breath and looked straight ahead. Rosa groped for Maria's hand, and she took it immediately.

She really should have known. The spell required some changes for alien physiology, but she'd done it to his twin not so long ago, and with Maria's help, it worked perfectly.

"Rosa," Liz whined as Max looked only at her blankly.

She sat back and dug through Liz's bag again. Rosa took a pinch of ginger and placed it at the back of her tongue. That magic was sickening. She waved her hand, and Max thumped the roof of the car and stepped away, still blank.

"Drive, Liz," Rosa said imperiously. She did. Once the roadblock was no longer visible in the rearview mirror, she asked, "Did you know?"

"Did _you_ know?" Liz snapped back. "I knew there were aliens here, they're all over the damn place."

"But did you know the kid with the crush on you forever was one?"

"No, I didn't," she said through her teeth.

"Did you ever hook up with him?" she wondered.

"No," Maria answered for her, "She's been living out of her lair for the last decade, online school, online friends, online dating. Most people thought she left town."

"Lab. The racists thought I went to Mexico."

Rosa curled her lip in disgust.

Liz pulled into the driveway of a regular, though small house just outside of town and parked.

"This is your lair?"

" _Lab_. Yes."

"Nice stucco."

She groaned loudly when she reached the door.

"What?"

"Got company." She pointed at a chalk drawing of a Stetson beneath the doorbell before she rubbed it away.

Maria pressed her fingers to her temple as they entered, and from two rooms away came a rough drawl: "I'm in the kitchen, I'll stay here, you don't have to _yell at me Wildflower_!"

"Stay out of the liquor cabinet, Cowboy!" Liz called. "It's medicinal!"

"I'm here _for_ medicine!"

Liz rolled her eyes and led them through the front family room down a hallway to a bookcase. She pulled on a book and released a pneumatic lock.

"Seriously?"

"Yes, seriously. I thought it was cool at the time." They went down a carpeted spiral staircase and past half a dozen bunks, finally arriving at the lab proper.

"Ah, you went full mad scientist," Rosa said approvingly. She examined a practical-looking suit on a mannequin; it was a simple costume and easy to move in. The symbol in the middle of the chest hadn't changed over the years. "You design for White Noise?"

"Liz designs for all the heroes in this part of New Mexico," Maria said with clear pride.

"Don't get too impressed, I'm no Gucci." Rosa had to swallow a snort. "You got all the creative genes, I'm just glad it works and isn't all flat-out ugly."

"I could probably help with that. You hiring a designer? I haven't done crack in ten years," she said enticingly.

Liz dropped her bag on a busy table, and Maria sat in one of the armchairs shoved in a corner. "You're telling me if I tested you right now I wouldn't find any drugs in your system?"

Rosa raised a finger. "You wouldn't find any coke or meth."

Her sister sighed. "Ay. I should still run a blood test. It might be whatever you mixed caused you to dimension jump or, or something. I should record it. So it can't happen again."

She frowned deeply, but eventually she offered her arm. Liz rubbed the inside of her elbow with an alcohol wipe, then she quickly drew a large sample.

"You got food?"

"Not down here," Liz said distractedly. She placed a drop of blood on a slide to view under a microscope. "I'd eat and contaminate things."

Maria stood and pressed her fingers to her temple again.

"Whatcha doing?"

"Getting Cowboy out of the kitchen so that we don't have to deal with him."

"I thought Wildflower was supposed to love _all_ her heroes," Rosa said airily.

"Maybe I would if he didn't smell like a river and irritate the hell out of me."

Upstairs in the tidy kitchen, the liquor cabinet hung open, space for a bottle or two clearly evident.

"Plus he's a thief."

"I'll put it back when I'm allowed in the kitchen again, I just don't understand why you're sneaking around in here," came from the next room, along with the _clink_ of a pair of glass bottles.

"Because I have a new hero without a mask," Maria said, to Rosa's dismay. "And if she gets found out I'll cut your fingers off one by one."

"All right, all right. Get a new threat. Geez." The voice brightened. "Welcome to the party, newbie. Got a code name yet?"

Maria laid her hand over Rosa's forehead, an apology and an answer in one.

"Thornsweet," Rosa said, hoping the dread in her voice wasn't obvious.

"I'm Space Cowboy."

" _Just_ Cowboy. You're working your way up, Maurice."

He made an affronted noise. "You don't have to be mean. Let me know when I can come back in."

Maria pulled a tray of Bagel Bites out of the freezer. Liz had a high end toaster, and they'd be done quickly. "Get comfortable, it'll be about ten minutes," she told him.

Rosa hopped up on the counter, and Maria joined her when she held out her hand. The lights went dim.

"I can't believe you just made me a hero."

"He's smart, okay? If it wasn't a secret identity thing, he would have come in and seen you. We can't keep casting that spell."

"Alien?"

She nodded. The kitchen lights slowly came back.

"Hey, Wildflower," Cowboy called after a moment. "You heard anything about Master Sergeant Dickhead lately? I want a punching-people-and-blowing-things-up mission."

"All I've heard is that his son's back."

They heard the unmistakable sound of a chair that had been leaning back landing hard. "Which one?" he demanded.

"The youngest. Alex."

She was doing a good job of sounding like she didn't know him, but her smile said otherwise. She winked at Rosa, who squinted at the door.

"Oh, what does, what does he do?"

"From what I understand, he supports supers by keeping tabs on them and making sure any vigilante activity is lawful."

"So we have another ally in town?"

"Mhm. You'll probably have to meet him soon so he can do his job, but he'll set that up through me."

Rosa pinched her arm pointedly and indicated herself. Maria shook her head, but it was more "not now" than "don't worry about it." The toaster dinged.

"Oh, you shouldn't have. What did you make me?" Cowboy asked.

"Nothing. Make your own." Maria transferred all the mini pizzas to plates. "We're going downstairs, don't bother us. Tincture will check on you in a bit."

Rosa gave her a questioning look, but Maria jerked her head. Once they were safely behind the bookcase, she explained. "Tincture is one of Liz's code names."

"She has more than one? Hell."

"Tincture or the Armorer," Liz said. She was watching another sample of blood bubble. "It's safer if people don't realize how much knowledge I actually have."

"Damn, Elizabeth," Rosa said, impressed. She shot a glare at Maria. "Apparently I'm Thornsweet now, which means I'm gonna be on the list of heroes Alex Manes gets."

Liz pulled off her gloves and safety glasses and followed the pizza to a card table set up behind the mannequins. She positively beamed. "Alex is back? I hope we can have a drive-in night soon. Think he'd be down for that?"

"Probably."

"How's he been?" Rosa asked. She barely let the small bagel cool before she popped it in her mouth.

"He joined the Air Force. He's mostly been overseas, so about as well as you'd expect."

Rosa dropped her next Bagel Bite like it had spontaneously combusted. "Alex Manes? Our Alex? Sweet, sarcastic, gay, guitar-playing emo Alex?"

Maria sighed. "Yeah. Something broke in him around the time you disappeared, actually. And I heard he's come home with a Purple Heart, among a dozen other accolades."

"What the hell," she said. She didn't like that. Then she indicated the plates. "How many of these do you guys want?"

"I'm good."

"Me, too."

"Great, because I'm eating all of them. Am I or am I not going to be on the codename list?"

"Only if you accept a mission," Maria said. "If you never accept one, you never get put on the list."

"Sure. So when have you or anyone in history ever given out a code name and not had them accept at least one mission? It's psychically linked. You'll find something I care about or something I'm good at and call me in."

"You don't have to accept," she said, as if it was that simple.

Rosa looked at her sister. "Have you ever rejected a mission? For either of your code names?"

Liz picked at the table cloth. "No. Never."

"Now I know Liz is the epitome of good, but have _any_ of your heroes rejected any?"

Maria pushed her hair back, considering, and her jaw dropped open. When she recovered, she said, "No. I'm sorry. Maybe you won't get one for a while."

Rosa let out a breath. "Whatever. You're just good at your job. I knew you would be." She finished off the food and leaned back. "Dios mio, that was good. Now I want to sleep for ten years."

Her sister swatted at her. "Don't even joke about that."

"Too soon? Yesterday I was trying to protect you from racist graffiti on the car. It hasn't been any time for me. I'm hungover and I'm  _tired._ "

"It's too soon. Look." Liz stood and pushed a mannequin to the front. "I made this as a test when I first started doing armor. I thought if you'd had it, maybe-- well, it wouldn't have made a difference, technology at the time, but I still work on it when I'm stuck on something else. You've been inspiring me for a decade."

She walked up to the glimmering red fabric. The threads were thick and reacted to her touch with a mild glow. "How is it keyed to me?"

"Because you left a piece of you with me, caged in with my heart. I may have to do some adjustments, but if you ever do take a mission, this will be ready for you." She smoothed a wrinkle on the leg and kept her eyes on the piece.

"I never wanted to leave you," she said, pulling her sister into her arms. This is just what Rosa had done a week ago, combing her fingers through her hair and telling her that Kyle was vanilla, anyway. "I didn't want to be like mom. I didn't want to let you down."

She felt a dampness on her neck and pulled back to wipe away Liz's tears.

"No, no, none of that. I'm here now, okay? Estoy aquí."

"Thornsweet," Maria said behind them.

"Dammit." Rosa turned slowly, one arm still around Liz's shoulders. Her best friend's eyes glowed purple and watched her intensely. "This is too soon."

"A mission for you."

"No shit. What is it?"

"Be there for Liz. Do you accept?"

"You absolute bitch," Rosa said with a fond smile. Without hesitation, she said, "Of course I accept. I can't believe you. God."

The purple glow began to fade. "Good luck on your mission."


	2. Tincture

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Liz makes some progress with things.

Liz had never heard such a straightforward mission in her life, but she supposed this was her sister, so it had to be pointed yet vague.

Maria shook off the psychic fugue with an annoyed groan. She touched the flower pendant in her necklace before she caught Rosa's glare. "Oops."

"Yeah, _oops_. I have to pretend to not be me in front of Alex Manes, the most tease-able boy on the planet?"

"I think you'll--" Maria paused to hiccup. "Think you'll find you have a harder time with it now."

"He's gonna knooow. He's too smart." Rosa fell dramatically back into her chair. "Secret's out, Rosa's a witch _and_ a bitch."

"He has no reason to think you're back," Liz said.

Maria massaged her forehead. "And you only have the one mission. You just have to tell him you're operating within the confines of the law."

"You think I can say that with a straight face, babe?"

"Besides, even if he did figure it's you, he wouldn't out you, he's still our friend." She sighed. "If you really don't think you can do it, I'll think of something else."

Rosa made a face, then held a hand out to Liz. "Hand me the basil for Maria, please."

She went to her bag and returned with the small jar of tiny leaves. Rosa poured some into her hand. Liz always found her sister's magic enchanting; she crushed the leaves into nothing without touching them and added her own energy, then she laid her palm over Maria's forehead.

"I should go see what Cowboy wants," Liz said. She plucked one of the masks off her table. Attached to her face, her clothes realigned themselves to match, to become Tincture's costume.

"Okay, that was cool," Rosa said.

Liz smiled at her and headed upstairs. In the kitchen, Cowboy offered her a bottle of vodka, which she waved away. His lip was split, but he otherwise appeared fine, even with his own mask obscuring the upper third of his face.

She wet a paper towel and dabbed at his face despite his protests. "What are you up to, anyway?" she said suspiciously.

"I'm not _up to_ anything. I finished my last mission and now I'm bored."

"That's what day jobs are for."

"Do I look like day job material?" He took swig of the vodka to prove that he wasn't.

"I know you have one because you're going to replace that bottle."

"Yeah, yeah. I've got the day off. I have some ideas to bounce off you, if you're interested."

She pressed her lips together. Cowboy was one of the few people who knew that she was both of her codenames. He liked to play a chill jock in public, but he was a genius, smarter even than her in some cases. They had figured out a lot together.

"I'm putting armor together for Thornsweet right now. Maybe later."

"Can I help?"

"God, you _are_ bored." She flicked at his forehead where his mask attached to his hat. "I don't even have a mask for her yet. You know it's not allowed."

"Aw, but _you_ get to know her identity?"

She took a deep breath. "I don't," she lied. "Wildflower is blocking her."

Cowboy grumbled. " _I_ think everything would be easier if we didn't have to keep secrets from each other, at least."

"You become Wildflower, and you can make the rules, okay?"

"No thanks," he said, downing more of the vodka. "Purple is not my color."

Liz opened a zipper on her thigh and gave him a tiny poultice. "Stop drinking. Hold that to your lip. Eat something. Go home."

He capped the vodka without looking and put it on the counter. "But I had a _really_ good idea that I think you'll like."

"Tell me another time. I need to help with Thornsweet."

Cowboy put the small pouch between his teeth with a groan and turned to the fridge.

Liz went back downstairs, shedding the mask as soon as she was past the pneumatic lock. Back to figuring out what the hell happened to her sister.

"Rosa, you had no feeling of time passing at all?" she asked as soon as she was within earshot. She interrupted her and Maria gossiping.

"A couple hours maybe? I figure I passed out almost midnight, woke up after sunrise."

"But did you _feel_ it or did you just apply logic?"

"Liz, time is an illusion that I can barely grasp when I'm sober, and I was high as a kite. I will tell you that it didn't _feel_ like ten years."

Liz turned on her laptop, and Rosa stood behind her, fascinated.

"Shit, that's fast. I'm not hallucinating how fast that is, am I?"

"Oh no, we've come far in a decade." She began her research on spells that could displace someone's dimension.

"You have three dozen tabs open and it's not even stuttering."

"Mhm."

"Technology is amazing."

"Yeah it is," Maria said from her seat, clearly playing a mobile puzzle game. "Actually, I should get back home. Gotta put together that list."

"Hold on." Rosa caught her arm before should left. "Been bothering me since I called. Why are _you_ Wildflower now?"

She glanced at Liz. "Mom couldn't handle it anymore, that's all. You've got enough on your plate."

She crossed her arms and as soon as her friend was upstairs, she said, "Tell me."

"It's not dementia, or Alzheimer's. There's nothing physically wrong with Mimi. It's something psychic, we think." Liz looked away from the computer screen with a sigh. "She's been confusing me with you for years. Nothing we do helps. It's destroying Maria."

Rosa began to sort through the glass bottles again, but Liz shook her head.

"I know I've never been as good as you at spells, but if any of them had the potential to work with a stronger caster, we would have seen the signs and found one."

She pulled out the time sensitive pink liquid. The essence was a relatively new discovery without many uses, as far as anyone knew, and Liz could see the cogs turning in Rosa's head. "I know messing with time is dangerous, but--"

"You can't risk Mimi like that."

"No, no, I'm sure you can come up with experiments or whatever you want, but there has to be a way, right? If it was something that's happened to psychics before, you would have research to back it up, but you don't. So there has to be another way to help her."

"I don't exactly have psychic mice to perform experiments on, Rosa," Liz said. "Brain chemistry is complex, even without psychic threading. One wrong move and Maria doesn't even have the ghost of a mother anymore."

"That's what isolation is for, Elizabeth." Rosa poured a drop of the liquid into her palm and rolled it around. "What is this stuff, anyway?"

"It's irifruit essence."

"Irrefute? Like irrefutable?"

"No, irifruit, like iridescent fruit." Liz pulled up an image search. It showed trellised trees that looked plain wrong with black branches, silver leaves, and pink speckled fruit. "It's passion fruit genetically modified with alien plant DNA."

Rosa held her fingers to her nose. "Smells good. Do they taste good?"

"I wouldn't know. They're mostly used as perfumes, and only recently did people realize they're time sensitive. "

Her sister pointed to one of the pictures. "I give myself a mission to help Mimi. Can you get me a whole tree to mess with?"

She nodded and clicked on one of the suggestions at the top of the search to order one. "It'll be a couple days."

"Fine. I'll help you get this shit together in the meantime."

"This shit?"

Rosa indicated the entire lab.

"I still want to figure out what happened to you before anything else." She had a components list for a stay-away hex side by side with one for a generic dimension spell. Nothing matched up. Maybe it was because of the burn out? Of course, there were a thousand different ways to cause one...

Her sister played with the irifruit essence, prodding it across her fingers and stretching it out in midair. As Liz watched, the nightshade glamour wore off, and Rosa went back to looking like herself -- besides the painful looking skin peeling off her arms and neck.

"There's aloe in the bag," Liz told her.

"It doesn't hurt, just itches." Rosa flattened the drop of essence and formed a triangle around it with her fingers. She held it up to Liz, and Liz saw herself on prom night reflected back. Her mouth dropped open. "Oh yeah. This eerie fruit has _potential_."

"Irifruit."

"You and your insistent terminology. It _is_ eerie."

"Mess with it later. I want to make sure you don't disappear for another decade." She could feel the worry creeping on her face, and Rosa could see it, because she returned the essence to its bottle and turned to her. "The last thing you remember is the burn out, right?"

She nodded.

"How'd you do it?"

"It was a spell I kept in a choker to keep people from touching me. Cayenne, black pepper, curry, camphor, bit of nettle, peppermint. I thought the quickest way to get him away from me was to ignite it."

"You _ignited_ pepper? You blew up the whole cave, Kate and Jasmine's burns--"

Rosa put her thumbs up. "Mace works."

"Oh my god." Liz pushed her sister's head back to check her nostrils, despite her noise of protest. Fortunately, she hadn't hit herself in the face. She turned back to her computer. "You _cannot_ live so recklessly anymore, Rosa, I cannot lose you again."

"Aw, you like me."

"Maybe it was the peppermint," Liz said instead.

"How?"

"It has wish connotations, and wishes are sort of dimension manipulative?"

Rosa made a face, unable to follow her logic. "I don't think that's what happened."

"What _do_ you think happened, then?

She shrugged. "I dunno, I went to sleep right after. All those drugs, the mostly done ritual, the burn out, I was exhausted."

Her eyes widened. "Are you sure the guy left?"

"I've been trying to tell you guys all morning that I'm not sure of anything." Liz pulled up a new image search of, apparently, giant eggs. Some were bright white and some were amber. "What are those?"

"Alien pods. Maria thinks the guy was Bodysnatcher, and we think he's an alien, so it stands to reason that he'd have a pod. They act as stasis chambers. It would explain why you haven't aged, why Maria couldn't call you!"

Rosa slowly frowned. "Okay, except I've never seen one of those in my life."

"You said you aren't sure what happened."

"Yeah, but being in an egg?" She leaned on her elbow. "I don't know. I guess it's possible and horribly creepy. Been butt naked in an egg for a decade. Ugh."

Liz stood and went to a wall covered in papers and strings, pictures of victims and a list of every mission that had to do with Bodysnatcher. Inside a glass case to the right was her loom; she had to make the special fabric for armor herself, and it had to live behind extra-thick safety glass so no one could steal it.

Her sister rested her head on her shoulder to take in what was essentially a conspiracy board. "Jesus," she said softly.

"Admittedly, you fit in with most of the victims. It crossed my mind more than once that maybe you were, too, and we just hadn't found your body yet."

"I'd definitely haunt your ass," she said grimly, surprising a laugh out of Liz. "I'd haunt the whole damn town. But right now, this poltergeist needs to sleep. Which bed can I have?"

She took her upstairs to one of the bigger bedrooms next to hers. "Lock the door before you sleep so no other heroes wander in."

As if to prove it was possible, there was a clear knock on the front door, and Rosa raised her eyebrows.

"There's a bathroom attached. I'll go pick up some more of your clothes while you sleep."

She squeezed her sister's hand and left her to it.

Liz peeked through the peephole and saw a cop. He raised his head, and she recognized Max with a drop of her stomach.

"You got a warrant?" she asked as gruffly as she could.

He turned his head to hide a smile. Apparently her disguised voice amused him. "Arturo told me you'd be here, Liz. Something weird happened. Can I talk to you?"

She considered briefly whether she'd be able to lie to his face, a face she'd wanted to kiss for a decade but had never gotten around to. Then again, he was an alien. Maybe it was better that she never did.

Liz opened the door and waved him in to the air conditioning.

"Thank you."

"What happened?" She leaned against the wall.

"I was, uh, helping a survey crew earlier, directing traffic. I stopped a car to notify them about their running light, and it was you. I mean, I thought it was you." Max shook his head. "I feel foggy. I don't know, maybe I was hexed. It made me want to see you. Sorry, I know that sounds ridiculous."

Liz straightened up. "Foggy does sound hexed. I can give you something for that, if you want."

"Yes, please."

She went to the kitchen, and he followed her like a puppy. "Liz, have you really been in town all these years?"

Liz pulled open a drawer full of labeled jars, larger than the ones in her bag downstairs. She carefully selected a couple. "I wouldn't say I've been in town. I've mostly been here, and I visit my dad occasionally."

"But you've been nearby? You... never went on your trip?"

"Did you?" she asked as she mixed a small amount of the powders.

"No, my family needed me."

"So did mine." Liz got a glass of water to pour the powder into and handed it to Max. "Drink all of that. The fog should go away."

"Thanks. I appreciate it. And it's really good to see you."

Even after the morning she'd had, she couldn't help but smile at him. "It's good to see you, too. Maybe we should share a milkshake some time, huh, lab partner?"

He raised the glass and downed it. "Just tell me when. Bye, Liz."

"What about now? I need to head to the Crashdown anyway. I'll meet you there."

Max nodded. "See you there, then."

* * *

Liz beat Max there, only to find Grant Green gossiping about heroes at a booth. She sat across from him to listen.

"--given the care Armorer takes with White Noise's armor, I think they are dating."

Liz blanched. She needed to quash that, even if it was true that she took more care with his costume than anyone else's. So she liked him. Nothing could ever come of it. "Really? I heard Armorer and Tincture were dating."

Grant Green rolled his eyes and closed his laptop. "What?"

"Well, have you seen Tincture's armor?"

"She never goes out in public."

"Mmm. Neither does Armorer. Funny, that."

His eyes widened, and he opened his laptop to start furiously typing about her alter egos being in a romantic relationship. What was her life even coming to?

That's when her dad found her and pulled her from the booth. "Spreading gossip, chica?"

"Always! How are you?"

"All right, all right. I really like this latest apron you got me. Stainless and soft."

She pulled him back to the kitchen past the memorial dedicated to Rosa. God, she wanted to tell him. Instead, she said, "I'm glad you like it. It's also bulletproof."

"Mija! I don't need that!"

She eyed the memorial. The closer to the anniversary, the more vandalism the diner underwent, and it was only a few days away. But if she talked about that, she'd tell him. Instead, she asked, "Did you tell Max Evans where I live?"

"Oh, yes. He's a sweet boy, always gets coffee but never drinks it, tips well, asks how you are. But he asked _where_ you were today. He looked worried. Should I not have told him?" Her father nodded over the counter, where they could see Max just sitting, hat on the counter. He caught her eye and waved.

"No, it's all right. I didn't know he... I invited him here for a milkshake."

He spread his arms to indicate the kitchen was all hers and got back to work. She quickly made the shake and walked it through the diner, placing it before Max like an offering.

"The fog is gone," he said before taking an appreciative sip. "Thanks again."

She nodded and took the glass after him. "So you're a cop now. What happened to novels people lose themselves in?"

"I'm still writing them, they just don't pay the bills before they're finished." He laughed. "What are you up to, then?"

"I remotely collaborate on biomedical engineering projects. Data mining, observation."

"Oh, does that involve any dancing?"

"Constantly. Who even needs the gym when you're doing the tango with stem cells every day?"

Max shook his head, still laughing. Liz really liked the sound. Rosa was going to judge her so hard later.

When they finished the milkshake, she offered him another, but he said, "I'd like to, but I should get back to work. Rain check?"

She smiled. "It's a date. Here, give me your phone."

Max turned over his cell, and she put in her number and waved him off.

"I like him," said her dad, leaning over the counter and causing her to jump. He chuckled. "Did I scare you?"

She only held her hand over her heart as she caught her breath, but she knew that he knew he did. He set an early dinner in front of her as an apology.

Once she finished that, she headed upstairs to raid her and Rosa's old dresser. She dug her sister's old suitcase out from the bottom of the closet. In addition to her favorite clothes, she tossed in a couple of her CDs, books, and the makeup case that hadn't been touched in a decade.

Back downstairs, she overcharged herself for the shake and her dinner before her dad could stop her, and she made her way home.

* * *

If she hadn't thought Rosa was going to sleep well into the night, Liz might have brought her dinner. She left the suitcase outside her door and got back to work cataloging blood samples. 

Her sister wandered downstairs half past midnight in the pajamas she'd packed her with the pint of cherry Garcia ice cream she'd been saving and two spoons. "Girl, do you take breaks?" Rosa asked around her spoon.

"Yes, occasionally." Liz met her at the card table. "Did you eat real food?"

She shrugged. "I ate a bagel. Then I realized all I've eaten in the last decade was bagel-based products, so now I'm eating this."

"Excellent choice." Liz dug in with the offered spoon. "We do need to talk about how we move forward."

Rosa took a deep breath. "After the ritual, I was going to leave town to start my detox. I had a bus ticket and everything."

"Where'd you get a bus ticket?"

"Not important just now. Point is, I still want to do it. I want to get sober and stay that way." Liz felt her eyes prickle. Her sister patted her hand. "Please don't get emotional on me, Elizabeth. I'll do it, but I'll need your help, okay?"

She nodded and let them each get a few more bites of ice cream. "We should tell Dad you're back."

Rosa groaned. "No, leave Arturo out of it."

"Why? Why do you keep calling him that? I don't understand."

She tapped the spoon on the side of the container. "I guess it's not really his fault, but people suck, Liz. Me, Mom, heroes, everyone."

"I know people aren't inherently good, that they have to work at it, but Rosa, it's Dad. He would be so happy to know that you're okay."

Her sister stared at her. "Maybe so," she said finally. She scraped a large amount of cherry Garcia into her spoon. "Let me detox, and then I'll think about it."

Liz nodded, and they finished the ice cream in amicable silence, then went to bed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter we get Alex! :D


	3. Alex

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alex meets the heroes and is just Too Smart

Alex had wanted to stay as far from his father as he could get for as long as possible. He had failed at protecting what he loved, but he was never going to let that happen again because he wasn't even going to be on the same continent. An ocean away for three years at a time was the best he could hope for, really.

And then he had to go and lose his leg. No more front lines, or mid lines, or back lines, it was back to the home front and physical agony, but at least it wasn't because of a certain someone who shared his blood this time.

It was oddly nice to recover without anyone hovering, thanks to the classified nature of his work and his irritable CO who'd always known that Alex was too used to the pain of everything to have come from somewhere safe and warm, even if he never spoke of it. No, no one in his family knew he was missing pieces until he was ready to pretend he wasn't.

His brothers were hilarious as ever. They brought him a peg leg and an eye patch. Then they revealed they actually got him a fancy, hero-grade prosthetic, though they made sure their father wasn't present when they mentioned that. It'd be sent to wherever he moved. The swelling still had to go down.

Predictably, Jesse Manes was the worst. Alex still didn't know how not to shrink in on himself whenever he entered the room, but he told himself he'd learn. The man didn't care for him, most likely never had, no matter what he said about wanting to protect him in Roswell now that he'd be stuck with desk duty.

As much as Alex wanted to go back, he also did _not_ want to go back. He could put people, one particular person in danger. He couldn't allow himself to hope he could do better than he had before.

It turned out that he had no choice. There _was_ a desk job in Roswell that the higher-ups thought he'd be perfect for: babysitting vigilantes.

Between his dad's outright bigotry toward people with superpowers and Alex's own hang-ups and letdowns with heroes, it was not the job Alex wanted in the least.

But he did know the psychic there, so maybe he could do it. It wouldn't be so difficult to liaison with his best friend's mom, right?

He didn't even have to live with his father until he found a place. Jim Valenti had left him the key to his old hunting cabin, and it was the front porch there where Alex found the prosthetic his brothers promised him. He hated to admit it, but it was comfortable as hell and a work of art to boot. Too bad he never planned on wearing shorts again.

The morning after he got to Roswell, he headed straight to the Wild Pony and found Maria behind the bar.

She was delighted to see him. She clocked the crutch he was using to help keep his balance, but she didn't ask. "Alex, come to grace us with his presence! Welcome back. How are you?"

"I've been worse," he said pleasantly. "How are you doing?"

"Oh, you know, I'm here. Always." She offered him a beer, but he shook his head. "What, you pregnant?"

"On business, but thanks for asking."

"Business? What're you up to?"

"I'm the new hero liaison for Roswell," he said drably. "So I'm visiting you before I set up a meeting with Mama DeLuca. Is she here?"

Her mouth dropped open, but then she smiled and poured them each a shot of tequila. "Mom stopped feeling well enough to be Wildflower a couple years ago."

Alex frowned, worry in his eyes. "Is she all right?"

"Oh, yeah, except she thinks all the heroes are going to face-heel turn and overthrow the government. Or sometimes she thinks the aliens will launch a full-scale invasion." She threw back her shot. "But _I_ don't do business sober. Drink up, Captain Manes."

Oh, yeah, this would go swimmingly. He grinned and did as she said.

* * *

Alex was emailed a list of codenames three days later, along with the times they'd be arriving and some basic information he could just as easily have found on the internet. The list was in order of their induction, and there were only a few names at the end that he didn't recognize from before he first deployed.

The first few were virtually retired. They'd rarely done hero work when he was a child, and he doubted they'd give him any trouble. Their interviews went quickly.

The three he worried about were approximately his age and according to his research, their powers were alien. That could put them at odds with Roswell, given the serial killer who had been committing murder there for a decade and a half was almost certainly an alien. It wasn't something he wanted to get out if true, but he needed the truth in order to come up with contingencies.

White Noise was of most concern because he was known to leave hand prints like the killer, but as far as anyone could tell, he only healed people. He also had manipulation over lightning. His was the meeting Alex prepared for most.

Alex remembered him being a polite, helpful guy before, and that hadn't changed. White Noise shook his hand firmly when Alex let him into his office at exactly 10 a.m.

"All right, let's start with an easy one," Alex said once they were both seated. He tapped a mechanical pencil to his spiral notebook. "Are you operating within the confines of the law?"

"Yes," he said.

"Great. When was the last time you spoke to a government official in my position?"

The masked man rubbed his chin. "Little less than a year ago, last August maybe. Don't you guys keep a record of that?"

"We do. Just establishing a baseline." Alex made a couple notes. "Your powers come from a non-human physiology, correct?"

"Uh, I didn't, uh, know you that guys knew about... that."

He smiled at him. "We don't, officially. Don't worry. I won't put it into the official record, but I do have to ask: what do you know about the hand print murders?"

The lights buzzed as White Noise tensed.

"Calm down. I'm not accusing you of anything. There are very few aliens who leave hand prints, so I have to ask."

He relaxed and the fluorescents stopped flickering. "Of course, sorry. I just don't like to be associated with him. We call him Bodysnatcher, but we haven't been able to figure much else out. He seems to commit murders through other people and, like you said, leaves an alien hand print."

"We?"

"I frequently work with Influencer and Cowboy, but I think almost all of us have been called in on a mission involving him at one time or another."

There was nothing shocking about who he worked most with. They'd all been inducted at around the same time in high school. No, the problem was that so many heroes had been called on about this murderer and yet none had stopped him.

Alex frowned. "Have you ever been sent on a mission to explicitly stop this Bodysnatcher?"

White Noise shook his head. "Wildflower can't intercept him. She's tried. She's almost hurt herself trying. All she ever gets are vague clues, but she keeps a board of everything we have with Armorer, I think."

Alex nodded and wrote a note to himself to ask Maria to ask Armorer to bring the board. On a sketch pad, he drew a cluster of circles and connected them to represent White Noise, Influencer, and Cowboy. "Thank you," he said when he put his pencil down. "Please send in Influencer."

"No problem. Actually, um, Cowboy wanted to switch with her, said he wants to get out of here as soon as possible. She doesn't mind waiting."

Alex shrugged. "Okay. Makes no difference to me."

Cowboy was the flirty one of the trio, if he recalled correctly. He'd always been a little jealous of the anonymity the masks afforded them, if only because Cowboy used it to the fullest, hitting on everyone regardless of gender.

And he wasn't quiet about it.

The door banged open after a minute with a, "Good after _noon_ , Private!"

"I'm not in the Army," Alex said. "I'm an airman."

Cowboy shrugged and made himself comfortable. He leaned his elbows on the desk and shut the door with a wave of his hand. "You're really pretty for a Captain, aren't you?"

"Probably," he answered evenly. His pride wouldn't let him deny it, but the professional environment wouldn't let him confirm it, either. He flipped a page in his spiral notebook. "Are you operating within the confines of the law?"

"Define "operating." And "confines." And which law are we talking about, here?"

Alex eyed the smirk under the cowboy hat and mask combo. It was familiar. He glanced at Cowboy's hands -- both gloved. He shook the thought from his head. Michael wasn't an alien, and he wasn't a hero. Just a coincidence.

"You undressing me with your eyes? Secret identity's secret for a reason. Come on, Manes, I got places to be."

"Are you working in accordance to the vigilante law, i.e., only working in costume when given a mission by your lead psychic?"

"Oh, that law. Yeah." Cowboy tapped on the table. "Am I allowed to wear the costume if I'm not working? Is that illegal?"

"You've been a hero for thirteen years and only just now thought to ask that?"

"No, I just want to know what you think. Is it?"

Alex sighed. "I suppose it technically isn't."

"Aha. Limited time offer, then. Wanna go on a date with me?"

He rubbed his forehead. Maria had warned him that Cowboy was difficult, but damn, he was a lot. He jerked his head. "I'd better pass. I'm not really into cosplay."

"Shucks," Cowboy said, and he flicked his fingers in the direction of the desk necessity Newtonian metal balls. They began to clack. "Are we done, then?"

"Nope. Your powers come from non-human physiology, correct?"

Cowboy put his chin in his hands. "Wow, pretty _and_ smart. None of the other liaisons ever figured that out. Yup, I'm a telekinetic alien cowboy. Como se dicé... Yeehaw."

Alex didn't bother asking about Bodysnatcher. That was a question for Armorer. Instead, he asked, "When was the last time you accepted a mission?"

"Two days ago."

That matched what Maria had told him. "Okay, thank you. Send in Influencer."

Cowboy huffed and stood. "Let me know if you ever get into cosplay."

Alex waited until he left to smile, but he quickly controlled his expression when his next appointment walked in, the barest semblance of a mask and long blonde hair swinging behind her. If he looked long enough, he was sure he'd recognize her, but the swirls of silver threw him off.

She sat neatly and looked Alex over with a sharp eye.

"I like you," she announced after a moment.

"Thanks?" He turned back to her page. "Are you operating within the confines of the law?"

"Yes."

As if any of them would say no, but it was part of his script. "Your powers come from alien physiology, correct?"

Influencer turned her head. White Noise may have been the most physically dangerous of the three, but Influencer's mental prowess was nothing to sneeze at. "I knew I liked you. Yes, that's correct. I assume you're leaving that off our records? I hate to have to mind warp someone I like."

Alex showed her her page and how he _wasn't_ writing that answer down. "I am here to protect you just as much as I am to protect civilians."

She smiled at him. "Aw, you're sweet. Show me White Noise and Cowboy's pages."

Alex had a feeling that it wasn't actually Cowboy's idea to switch with her. He patiently did as she asked, each of their pages also absent any mention of their non-human physiology.

"Excellent." She beamed at him. "Thank you."

And apparently they were done. She left the door open; Alex was sure it was purposeful because he had a clear view of her pulling up the two masked men and leading them away with an arm around each of their shoulders.

A clear warning not to mess with them, as they were under her protection. Alex had no intention of doing so, but he thickened the lines connecting the trio on his sketch pad.

The door being left open was good for him, too. It meant he didn't have to stand to call in Maria -- Wildflower.

She pushed the door shut behind her and smiled at him despite her flowery mask. He opened a drawer and pulled out two glasses and a bottle of Jack.

"You really know how to treat a woman, Alex," she said, taking the offered glass and downing it.

"You said you don't do business sober. I know her appointment isn't for another forty-five minutes, but is Armorer already here? White Noise told me she has an info board on Bodysnatcher I'd like to see."

"She stays in her lair until the last possible second. Hold on." She shut her eyes, and when she opened them again, they glowed purple.

Alex remembered Mimi doing this more than a few times. Supposedly, an image of her was appearing to Armorer and giving her a mission. When the glow faded and she shook herself out, he knew she was back. "She accepted. She'll bring the board." Wildflower winked at him. "Do I need to give you a codename if you're going to help?"

"God, no," Alex said. "Can you imagine how useless I'd be?"

"Don't undersell yourself, sweetie. Maybe with your help we'll finally catch him. Plus, I just got Thornsweet the other day. I'm feeling very good about everything. I don't think he'll get a chance to kill anyone else." Her positivity bottomed out. "Although, about Thornsweet... Do you _have_ to see her this year?"

"She's on the list, so I have to. What's wrong?"

"Like I said, I just codenamed her the other day. She doesn't know how to maintain a secret identity yet, and it's imperative she keep it."

Alex scratched his head. "Is it really that hard?"

Wildflower sighed. "She's young and displaced. There are also some medical issues."

"Well, I could probably enter a medical deferral, but I need a proxy assurance that she's operating within the confines of the law." He was already tired of hearing himself say that, and he had at least five more appointments after lunch.

"I can provide that. She hasn't even been out in costume yet. The mission that put her on the list had to do with Armorer."

Alex pulled open another drawer. He had stuck those files in there somewhere... He slid the medical deferral across the desk along with a pen. "Do you have any idea if and when the medical issues will be resolved, so that I have an idea of when I _can_ meet with her?"

Wildflower scanned the paper and signed at the bottom as he looked for the second paper. "Only a couple months. We'll practice with her in the meantime."

He nodded and handed her the assurance sheet. She signed that as well.

"Honestly, if you figured her out, there wouldn't be a pleasant explanation."

Alex leaned back with a grimace. "Is she an eldritch creature from another dimension?"

Wildflower snorted. "You're not so far off."

"Great. Is anyone else going to be as difficult as those last two?"

She tapped the pen to her lips thoughtfully. "No, they're definitely the worst."

That was a relief. "I have to ask you, as well. Are you operating within the confines of the law?"

"Yes."

"And you codenamed everyone following you on the list?"

"Yup, that was me. You'll notice the names are better than Mom's."

"I dunno, Cowboy is pretty classic," Alex said dryly. He poured them more Jack. "White Noise also told me you have trouble intercepting Bodysnatcher."

Wildflower groaned and downed the whole glass. "I don't think I can psychic at aliens properly, and he's-- he's _strong_ , Alex. Mom couldn't intercept him, either." She looked down, her voice falling to a hushed whisper. "I'm afraid that's why she became ill. She was getting desperate. I can't push it."

He covered her hands. "I'm sorry," he said sincerely. "If there's anything I can do to help her or you, let me know, okay?"

She nodded with a sniff. "Thank you, Alex. I'm glad you're our new liaison. The last one didn't care for us at all."

"What happened to them?" Alex wondered.

"Influencer did. She lodged a complaint petition." Wildflower waved her hand. "White Noise got hurt because the last guy didn't write out all his powers. Aliens get sick when they overexert, and they didn't give him a chance to recover."

He frowned. "There's no report about that."

"They don't want people to know they're aliens, so they didn't file one." She shrugged. "That's reasonable. The complaint petition served its purpose. We didn't like him much before that, anyway."

"Who else knows they're alien?"

"Most of the other heroes, as far as I know."

Alex closed his book. "Out of pure curiosity, do you know all the heroes' identities?"

"Not _all_ of them, no."

"All right. Thank you." He smiled at her and tapped on his watch. "Time for my lunch. You wanna grab something?"

"Wildflower and Captain Manes? What would people say!" In the end, she shook her head and stood. "I have to go take over looking after Thornsweet. Maybe dinner?"

"Sounds lovely. See you later. Text me."

Once he was alone in his office again, Alex leaned back and took a deep breath. And another one for good measure. Then he grabbed his crutch and headed straight to the lunch room.

* * *

When Alex came back down his hallway, he found three masks waiting for him, engrossed by a very large board covered in notes. One of the women stood at attention when she saw him, and he waved his hand. He guessed she was former military. She had to be Whistle. She sat back down, and the woman holding the board got up.

Alex guessed that she was Armorer, both because she was his next appointment, and because he'd never seen the costume. It was red and looked almost like plate mail despite being fabric.

She shook Alex's hand, the board awkwardly under her other arm. "Hello! Um, thank you for your service."

He balanced without the crutch for a moment and said, "Well, I only did it for the attention."

The other woman snorted, and the man who sat between them covered his laugh.

"Sorry!" Armorer squeaked, but he smiled to show she'd done no harm.

"Come on in," he said, and led the way through the door, shutting it behind her. He dragged one of the chairs against the wall. "You can lean that up here. Thanks for bringing it."

"Oh, of course, always happy to have another pair of eyes on it."

Alex propped his crutch against his desk and sat down, and the hero followed his lead. "You _are_ Armorer, right?"

She bobbed her head. "That's me. I'm also Tincture, though." She ran a finger down the side of her mask, and her costume changed to be more purple and airy, like a cloak rather than outright armor. "This is more comfortable."

He had to stare. Sure, he'd heard of people having more than one codename, but both playing support roles? And that technology... "That's amazing."

He could see the faint hint of a blush where her mask ended. "Thank you."

"So Armorer does costumes, and Tincture does spell casting?" he asked as he drew a thick line connecting her two circles.

"Pretty much. Usually just hero stuff." She glanced back at his crutch. "You know, I got a commission a couple months back from some Air Force guys to make a prosthetic leg."

"Oh?" He should have known something hero-grade was made by a hero.

"I hope it's working well for you. It's bulletproof," she said excitedly.

He laughed. "I don't think I'll be taking any more bullets, but it is a very nice leg. Thanks."

She put her hands on the table seriously. "Definitely let me know if it gives you any trouble, okay? Me or Cowboy, we developed it together."

"I will." Alex nodded and flipped open his notebook to her page. In his sketch pad, he drew a line from her to Cowboy. "Does everyone know you're Armorer and Tincture?"

"Nope. I'm going to switch back to Armorer's costume when I leave."

"Then the safest route would be for me to fill out my forms as if you are separate people. Okay?"

"Okay."

"As Armorer, are you operating within the confines of the law?"

"Yes."

"As Tincture, are you operating within the confines of the law?"

"Yes."

He nodded and turned his chair to face the board. "Mind telling me what's going on here?"

Armorer hopped up; she was hands-on. "All of this over here is on record. Here are the missions we've gotten about Bodysnatcher and what we've turned up." She frowned at the board. "We believe he is an alien with a body count of approximately thirty, twenty-six of which had confirmed hand prints. The victims are mostly-- What?"

 _"Twenty-six?"_   he asked incredulously. He knew it was more than a couple, in the double digits even, but that...

"Yes, and four unconfirmed, including Kate Long and Jasmine Frederick."

Alex looked at her sharply. Those were well-known names, but their deaths were usually attributed to a certain spell caster. "Rosa Ortecho?" he asked after a moment.

Armorer froze. Where she'd been bubbly before, all movement stopped. An uncomfortable silence passed before she started up again and said quietly, "No, I don't believe so."

"Why not? She was suspected to have been with those two girls when they died, so if you suspect them being victims, why not her?"

She deflated and returned to her seat. "She was right. You're really too smart. I just got so excited about our new information." She shook her head. "Alex, do you trust us?"

"Do you trust _me_?" he asked. "Because I have a feeling you know me."

Armorer smiled. "I haven't seen you since high school, but I still trust you."

"Then tell me. I want to help, and to do that I need as much information as possible."

"Only Wildflower, Thornsweet, and I know this right now. We haven't told the others yet. Yes, we discovered that Rosa Ortecho was a victim of Bodysnatcher as well."

Alex's stomach dropped.

"But she wasn't killed."

Alex's jaw dropped.

Quickly, she continued. "Unfortunately, she doesn't remember him. My hypothesis is that he had her in stasis all this time, that he has a pod."

"She's okay? She's alive?" He gripped her hand when she nodded. "Did you tell her family?"

"Her sister knows. They'll get around to their parents."

He leaned back and looked at the ceiling. The day only got weirder and weirder. Alex could remember the anger and grief of his best friend at the end of senior year. The Ortechos didn't even get the closure of a body like the Longs and Fredericks. But Rosa was still alive, and Liz had her back. He needed to see Liz, and Maria, too. Rosa, if they'd let him.

Alex slowly let out air and looked back at the nervous Armorer. "That's good. I'm glad she's okay. What were you saying about the victims?"

She faced the board. "Majority women of color, majority drug addicts, poor, homeless... The guy's a total creep."

"Twenty-six confirmed..." 

"And people don't care because they're mostly brown girls." Armorer hissed in disgust at her own words.

"He won't get away with it," he assured her. He grabbed his phone to take pictures of the board, as they would no doubt want it back. She went to stand beside him. "We'll get him."

Armorer considered him for a moment, then raised her hand to her mask. Instead of changing her costume, however, she removed it entirely, and he recognized Liz Ortecho instantly, her costume becoming normal civilian clothing. Of course.

Alex shoved his phone in his pocket and hugged her tightly, careful not to smack her with his crutch. "You're a bit of a disaster, you know? You all right?"

She laughed. "Yeah, and so is Rosa. She didn't want anyone to know she was back until she detoxed. Dream team's gotta know, though, right?"

He rolled his eyes. Rosa was detoxing and Thornsweet had a medical deferral, she had only returned a couple days ago and Thornsweet got her name a couple days ago... "Liz, if you know anyone else's identity, you need to stop talking. Eggs in one basket and all."

"Oh, dammit!" She swatted at his arm. "You're too smart, Alex Manes. Missed having you around, though."

"Missed being around," he admitted. "I'm still settling in, but I want to hang out with you guys soon."

She fixed her mask back to her face and smiled brightly as her Armorer costume reformed. "I look forward to it, and to finally figuring this out."

Alex returned her conspiracy board and patted her shoulder. "Yeah. It was good to see you. Get my number from Maria, all right?"

"All right. We need a drive-in night."

He nodded. "Would you send in Antifa, please?"

"Yup." She opened the door. "You're up, Antifa."

The masked man gave Alex a firm handshake before sitting across from him rather somberly.

"Afternoon. So." He flipped two pages in his notebook. "Are you operating within the confines of the law?"

"Yes."

Alex squinted down at his notes. "You don't have powers, is that correct?"

He shrugged. "I guess not."

"You've sent seventeen nazis, eleven homophobes, eight misogynists, four ableists, and one anti-vaxxer to the hospital in the last year."

"Is that all? Seemed like a lot more missions than that."

Alex snorted. "I kind of like you."

"Oh, good. The last guy was all, you can't just punch people you disagree with! I'm sorry, what am I supposed to do? Let them spout their eugenic bullshit? I'm on mission, Manes."

"Can you give me an example of a mission that ends with your query in the hospital?"

"All right, so Wildflower tells me, there's going to be a white supremacist or something at a certain place at a certain time, and he's going to try to incite violence against, say, Latinos. My mission is to prevent him from inciting violence, which his espoused views inherently _do_. So I prevent him from spreading his views. By putting him in the hospital."

Alex sniffed and nodded. "Okay."

"Okay?" Antifa looked around. "That's it?"

"Yeah, that's all sound. That _is_ how the first amendment works." Alex waved his hand. That was an easy interview. "Thank you. Send in Whistle, please."

The man blinked under his mask and stood. "She, uh, she actually goes by Chirp."

Alex frowned and folded his hands over his notebook. "Okay. Chirp, then."

He called her Chipper rather than either name as he left through the door, earning him a punch to the shoulder. She closed the door behind her and stood at attention in front of the chair as Alex drew Antifa's circle in his sketchpad.

"You can sit. This isn't a military setting."

She sat hesitantly.

He flipped to her page, the last one before Thornsweet. "So you don't go by your assigned codename?"

She cringed visibly. "I used to live somewhere else. I was Chirp and my partner was Whistle. We had to burn our connections there, and for whatever reason, the psychic here gave me _her_ name."

"She didn't come with you?"

"She had to stay behind," Chirp said carefully. "It's confusing for me to have her code. I don't respond to Whistle. I respond to Chirp."

"I see. I'm sorry that I can't change the paperwork. I have to go by what the psychic sends me--"

"And she can't change it, I know, believe me. I've asked." She sighed. "Just hurts."

He knew burnt connections were uncommon, even less when two heroes cut away at the same time. It wouldn't surprise him if they'd formed a connection in the ashes and that's what had thrown Maria off.

But that was pure speculation, something to research later. For now, he erased Whistle at the top of her page and wrote Chirp, with Whistle in parentheses beside it.

"Chirp, then. Are you operating within the confines of the law?"

"Yes, sir."

Alex pushed a hand through his hair and glanced at her. "You do realize that I could do a search for former military that moved to Roswell around the time you were codenamed, right? I'm not going to, just... making sure you're aware that you're not doing yourself any favors."

She groaned in confirmation.

"Great. Keep your military mannerisms a little quieter, and you should be fine."

"That easy, huh?"

He shrugged. "We can do high-fives instead of handshakes, if that'd help."

Chirp gave a small laugh and lifted her hand. "Lay it on me."

They high-fived crisply. Alex drew another circle on his sketch pad for the former Whistle. "Was the burn because you two were in danger?"

"Yes," she said shortly.

"Is it possible that danger has followed you?" She squinted at him. "I need to know if you need safeguards."

"Anything is possible, but I'd say it's unlikely. No one aside from Whistle knew I left, and I didn't tell her where I was going."

Alex nodded and put his pencil down. Softly, he asked, "Is she okay?"

Chirp blinked rapidly and looked up at the ceiling. "I don't know."

"We could reach out--"

"No," she said quickly. "I cannot put her at more risk."

"If she's in a predicament, we can help."

She rubbed at her wrist absently. "She isn't an immediate casualty. She's stronger than me. Catching the alien serial killer is more important."

"Then we should do that." He opened the picture of the board on his phone. "Got any theories?"

She waved it away. "I don't get very many missions. Occasionally a cat gets stuck up a tree and I take care of that, but once every two or three months I get what turns out to be a Bodysnatcher mission. Problem is, it's never the killer himself, it's someone he's possessed. Armorer has been trying to put together profiles on these people, but so far, there aren't any connections."

"Your power is flight, correct? That's how you follow the possessed people?"

"Yeah, go figure, Bird Noise Woman can fly." She nodded at his phone. "Maybe you'll see something. My list is in the bottom right corner."

Alex zoomed in, but he only recognized one name belonging to a known racist asshole. Another thing to research. "Thank you," he said finally.

Chirp stood with a wave and shut the door behind her, leaving him in silence.

Alex took his bottle of Jack back out and poured himself a glass before he attempted his own profiles.

He could totally do this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter is Isobel's, then Michael's!


End file.
